- Re: Neoliberalism’s cleverest trick Archived Message
- Neoliberalism’s cleverest trick - Keith-264 April 13, 2024, 1:37 pm
Posted by Gerard
on April 17, 2024, 1:01 pm, in reply to "Neoliberalism’s cleverest trick"
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"Put simply, in the course of the neoliberal revolution, Parliament ceased being representative either of capital or labour (whose representation was never widespread). Today’s parliaments are primarily comprised of people who are merely specialists at getting themselves elected. Promising bread and circuses at elections but delivering shit-filled rivers and crumbling public infrastructure and services thereafter. Which raises an important question – why would any sane person imagine that this craven institution is capable of delivering anything?" Surely the shit-filled rivers are evidence of capitalism? They could be evidence of socialism but in this case they are most assuredly not (at least not as an immediate cause). Can't help but to agree fully with the spirit of the question though; "Houston we have a problem!" Parliament is, however, subservient to capital directly via the Libor Scandal (although I will admit that China, the world's underwriter, is essentially neoliberal when others here won't). I find it horribly serendipitous that today we are hearing about a financial perfidy perpetrated against the unpaid carers in our country for surely given the obfuscation indulged in by our corporate government regarding the Post Office Scandal we can expect more incidents of this kind? It's lowest common denominator politics, we are circling the drain.  Pls. see "X" esp. re: JK: https://twitter.com/Williamtheb/status/1778413818336440519 Quote; "Post Office Scandal Qui Bono? Quote; "The Post Office won’t receive benefit payments anymore so millions are having to move accounts. Cashplus charge a fortune for transfers and transactions, VISA at the Co-Op also requires 3DSecure. None of the three are signed up to any kind of switching service so there is no benefit to changing acc. (as I am doing to the Co-Op), it’s outrageous, we are being targeted by the big financial players! Nb. The Job Centre called me in to verify my identity when I changed my recipient bank for U.C benefits. I may be forced to see them again when I change from Cashplus to the Co-Op (Cashplus is now unworkable as a day-to-day because of the expense of transferring money, transactions and accessing cash -not issues when my Post Office Savings Acc. was my benefit recipient-). Outrageous!!!" ... "(I had one of the old Post Office benefit recipient acc.s, myself, and many others, simply switched to a savings acc. when those acc.s were closed). This suggests the machinations of private interests ... "No benefit for the benefit recipients only those with pre-existing capital are rewarded, what a disgusting attack on the vulnerable, it’s a mugging on the public purse."... "Nb. This also means I am having to transfer all my direct debits “manually” (as it were), because none of the three institutions (Post Office, Cashplus and Co-Op Bank), are signed up to the switching service, thus we do all the spade work too (but you mustn’t call it that)! Furthermore think of the number of people with disabilities affected by this who are literally being pushed around in order to confirm their identities (whilst the faceless money-movers retain their anonymity)! Many have difficulty managing their money, I myself use an advocacy service because I have a stress-related mental health condition! Clearly the issue of the negative effect on the physical and/or mental health of those affected was not taken into consideration by any of the politicians, regulators or financial institutions concerned when the decision was being made to allow the, increasingly privatised (see post below), Post Office to behave this way. Also, with reference to the “Royal Mail”, as was, does it not seem strange that Charles Windsor did not show any interest in protecting the institution thus preserving it for the people? Makes me wonder just who was (and still is), holding which knife to the throats of our dear monarchy."..."the Co-Op bank I’m switching to has a branch in the city several long miles away…West End Village (half a mile or so away), has a Post Office but no other financial institutions of any kind…such must be the case all over the country (where there still are post offices), …what a terrible indictment of our financial structure! It is precisely those people most vulnerable and most susceptible to the machinations of big capital who are being discriminated against and disenfranchised. In case you are wondering why I am using these three institutions Co-Op Bank, Cashplus and Post Office Savings it is because I haven’t trusted the High St. Banks (although on the high st. the Co-Op is, notionally at least, “ethical” in its conduct), since the credit crunch…What sane person would?..I don’t want the money-movers grubby hands on my finances (I also have a savings account with Wessex Community Bank, a “not-for-profit” community bank, that currently receives payment from my Cashplus acc. but whose payments I must move to the Co-Op myself). Does it also not seem rather more than serendipitous that it is customers utilising such institutions who are being penalised? We need oversight on this, we are being shafted."... "This is a direct attack on community based organisations and campaigns, quote; “The notions are very different, for a socialist there is no “communal filter” between the individual and the institutions of the state but for a communist the state doesn’t exist without one (the capitalist, of-course, their actions being anathema to community, doesn’t believe in society at all). This exemplifies the veracity of the maxim; “the trouble with “-isms” is that they are full of “-ists”!”"... "If individuals are not empowered they cannot form effective communities. The vested interests know this so they are monopolising the financial services industry by-the-back-door in order to ensure control of (as Elon Musk might have it); “the memes of production”, after all that which cannot be said cannot be! It is a very anti-Schumachian exercise (for it is indeed “anti-social!”)." Go to: https://forum.5filters.info/t/email-to-the-shadow-chancellor-re-postofficesavings-benefits-disability-advocacy-financialmanagement/2978/11 So far no-one (to my knowledge), has spoken up about this to any significance in either house. The inadequacies of the "Horizon" software responsible for the, so called, Post Office Scandal are not the only software concerns to be exercising our administration, quote; "A major UK government department is relying on ageing technology and IT infrastructure, thereby reducing the resiliency of vital services and increasing the risk of cyber-attacks, a new report has found. Almost a third (30%) of applications used by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are unsupported, meaning security or software updates are no longer being issued for them, an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO), the UK’s independent public spending watchdog, revealed. Defra is the government department responsible for numerous critical environmental services, including disease prevention, flood protection and air quality. A major cyber incident could have severe societal consequences. The NAO’s investigation concluded that while Defra is taking steps to address urgent service risks and vulnerabilities in its digital systems, “it does not have a plan for the wider digital transformation that is needed.” In addition, the NAO noted that it was not until the government’s 2021 spending review that the department was given the necessary funding to tackle the problem in a strategic and planned way, with £366m ($445m) provided for IT investment in the period 2022-2025. Since receiving this funding, Defra has begun making progress on tackling its most pressing digital legacy challenges. However, “the additional funds are not enough to reduce risks to an acceptable level, nor fund a broader digital transformation,” according to the NAO. The report added that the department and its associated arm’s length bodies are not expecting to fix its legacy systems until 2030. The new analysis followed an investigation carried out by the NAO in July 2021, which identified IT legacy systems as one of six key areas of concern across government." go to: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/government-department-unsupported/ BBC Countryfile identified a badly-judged (underfunded), software purchase as being responsible for huge delays in the payment of subsidies from DEFRA to farmers in recent years and I had a poor experience myself when trying to use a government website when the Ministry of Justice simply lost an urgent submission I had made to them (apparently the on-site pro-forma was never received), strange when none of the commercial enterprises I was corresponding with at the time ever lost such a submission. These inadequacies are simply explained, however, as they represent yet more penny-pinching on behalf of an administration who would rather do anything (including holidaying in the Maldives), than invest in public services (including governmental ones).": https://www.arafel.co.uk/2024/02/the-death-of-british-liberalism.html?zx=32ea6bd2438998ca |
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